Very interesting dissertation from Dr Chi Lin about influence of Russian pianism on the Chinese teachers in Beijing. "Specifically, they stressed tone production. The transfer of arm weight to the fingers and the involvement off the wrists were the most important techniques advocated by the Russian teaching system...To produce a singing tone, the pianist must roll this weight from one fingertip to another while keeping the wrist flexible.... Within two years [1955-57], the Chinese pianists reached the highest performance level they ever had." The piano world is indeed a global village these days!

free download piano dissertation Lin

Maurice Emmanuel Piano Sonatines

Many years ago I received a request from the son of the composer Maurice Emmanuel to perform his Piano Sonatines. I duly learnt a couple and performed them, and very pleasant they are (if slightly forgettable, truth to tell). Emmanuel (1862 – 1938) studied at the Paris Conservatoire at the same time as Debussy, and in time became the teacher of music history to the great composers Olivier Messiaen and Henri Dutilleux. Emmanuel's works testify to a wide breadth of interests including folk music and Hindu chants. (French composer Jacques Charpentier's Etudes Karnatiques for piano are very interesting virtuoso piano works incorporating Indian modes – an uncommon interest –  perhaps an interest sparked by his teacher Messiaen, who in turn had been influenced by Emmanuel).

Anyway the purpose of this post is to say a big "Hat's Off!" to French pianist Laurent Wagschal who has recorded the Sonatines for Timpani label. 
I have never heard of Wagschal before, but his playing on YouTube is WONDERFUL! Such good sound. Such good fingers. Such supple technique. Also, Such a good piano, and Such good recording!
What a pleasure.
Whenever I am despairing of finding a living pianist whom I admire, one just pops up.
His playing reminds me of the sonorities and virtuosity of the wonderful blind French pianist Bernard D'Ascoli. 
Here is Wagschal's website
http://www.laurentwagschal.com/index.phpWagschal
You can buy the CD here (does anybody still buy CDs?)  http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Timpani/1C1194buy CD Emmanuel
Keep practising everybody!

 

Ignaz Friedman (above) gave some valuable advice to Australian pianist Mack JOst:

"The way you create it is to hear the sound in the heavens, then try to reproduce it in your arm. The only way is to free them [the arms], and I can always remember him saying 'draw out the sound on the last one... think of drawing out the tone.' Not hitting the key. You're really thinking of hauling it out."

PIano technique

There is a technique which liberates and a technique which represses the artistic self. All technique ought to be a means of expression.

I’m currently compiling a book of favourite quotations by the great pianists of the past. This quote by Hofmann is one of my favourites! People get a bit hung up about technique, but really it is not the main thing to focus on; after all, if you are going out on a friday evening to meet a friend, you are probably not focussing on how the wheels of the bus go round and round…

Stephanie Chou piano recital review 樂評：周佳臻狂放舞指鋼琴獨奏會

A very satisfying recital last night (28 April 2013) by Juilliard-trained Taiwanese pianist Stephanie Chou at the recital hall of the National Concert Hall.
The audience was a good size, the Steinway piano in excellent condition with a fine acoustic. The performer was well-presented in a flaming red dress and high-heels, and demonstrated good stage manner (happily avoiding the exaggerated mannerisms that were on display the previous evening in the concert hall by the Labeque sisters). The programme notes contributed by the performer were in Mandarin only, and my wife reports that these were helpful.
The opening number was the rarely heard G minor Sonata op 22 by Schumann. (The work opens with Schumann’s ‘Clara’ theme, the same descending motif which opens the great Fantasy in C.) This was a very confident and exciting presentation, with clear phrasing, well shaped and admirably well-prepared. Even in the face of awesomely complex technical challenges such as the coda of the fourth movement, the pianist kept her cool and delivered the goods. Brava!
Poulenc’s 'Hommage to Edith Piaf' is another rarely heard gem, and this received contented and spacious playing with many dreamy moments. Ravel’s 'Jeux d’Eau displayed perfectly controlled pedalling, with the pianist’s virtuosity excelling in the rapid sections on display, and a distinguished control of soft shadings. The fearsomely difficult 'Alborada del gracioso' perhaps needs just an extra ounce of carefree mastery to throw off the crisp rhythms with nonchalance, but the famous glissandi came off perfectly.
In the second half, we heard the teacher of Ravel, Gabriel Faure, whose delicious 5th Nocturne was given a warm performance, the swirling arpeggios of the middle section calling for controlled pianism, which was mostly delivered. The programme ended with Chopin’s great third sonata. What a big programme!
My only criticism is that, from where I was sitting at the back, there was a slight lack of volume in the climaxes of the music. This may have been the acoustics, but I suspect some technical weakness in the 4th and 5th fingers of the right hand: perhaps if these fingers could sink downward into the piano more - it would help to add extra volume at the top, allowing the bubbling sections to ‘sizzle’ more hotly whenever required. This extra electricity will further enhance engagement with the audience.  But despite this complaint, it was a very impressive and enjoyable recital.

How to play the piano properly

It's easy to say, and very hard to do...

To honour the expressive power of the music, playing from inside one's imagination, where the freedom of the arm and hand follow the inflections of the music. Sitting vertically, head upright, with the forearms horizontal and wrists not higher than the knuckles, fingertips in close contact with the keys.

Click here to watch a video of Finnish pianist Laura Mikkola showing perfectly how to do it, brava!

Or here to listen to one of my distinguished teachers Albert Ferber playing beautiful Faure (comme il faut).

Best YouTube piano videos clips part 1

Listening homework for my advanced piano pupils, Abhinav, Mike, Emmy, Maya

 Please set aside minimum 10-15 minutes per week to listen to great pianists.

Gradually you will get to know your favourite composers and performers, and so then you can explore them more. 
Please notice
+ horizontal forearm and flattish fingertips.
+ freedom of upper arm and forearm, while fingers stay close to keys.
+ upper arm and back muscles used when playing loudly (sitting not crouched over, not hunched)
+ Very intense concentration
+ very intense emotional expression

The Greatest Piano video of all time
Josef Hofmann plays Rachmaninov
Rounded movements. Beautiful hands. Inside the music.

Daniil Trifonov chopin scherzo 4
(slightly distracting facial expressions?!) Try and get tickets to see him sometime
in London in 2013. Possibly best young pianist alive (apart from my pupils!)

Ivo Pogorelich Chopin sonata 2 movt 1
If only I could copy his hairstyle! One of the most original pianists alive.

Gilels plays Rachmaninoff
Long pedals. Jumps around very fast and accurately!

Horowitz chopin ballade 1
Perhaps the greatest pianist of 20th century.
He makes you listen very carefully. Great concentration.
Unusually flat hands, much less curvy then almost everyone else! Expressive fingertips.

Mike and Abhinav

Zimerman Pathetique sonata Beethoven

Best YouTube clips part 2

Richter plays Schumann at 24.11 into this one.
Notice how loudly he plays his 5th finger - and often held very straight for repeated chords.
Fingers inside the keys despite huge arm flexibility.


Martha Argerich makes it look so easy! She is beautiful even in black and white!

Rubinstein plays Liszt Liebestraum

warm hearted, warm cantabile singing tone. best posture keeping head up!

Quite funny comedy sketch at the piano Victor Borge


such intelligent hands, perfect hand positions,
Jean Yves Thibaudet, at just before 2 minutes into this video (or 5.42 - 6.00)

perfect arm freedom
Alicia de Larrocha recital


Arcadi Volodos plays his own arrangement of Mozart’s Turkish March
Mr Rubber Fingers certainly knows his way round the keyboard!
Slightly annoying video editing at the beginning.

Vasily Safonoff

I love researching piano music at London's British Library!
There is a really good atmosphere among the researchers of all ages, plus the cafe does the most enormous pear and chocolate muffins!
I was curious to learn more about the Russian pedagogue Safonoff - I remember one of my teachers Yonty Solomon mentioning him. Here's a helpful quote from a 1915 book of his.


 "A chord must never be be prepared in a stiff position, for then the sound becomes hard and wooden. The chord must, so to speak, be hidden in the closed hand, which opens, in falling from above for the necessary position, just at the moment of striking the keyboard. This means that the chord must be ready in the thought of the player before the hand opens. This was the secret of the incomparable beauty of sound in the chords of Anton Rubinstein whose playing the author of this book had the good fortune to watch closely for many years."






p 27 Vasily Safonoff
New Formula for the Piano Teacher and Piano Student
pub Chester , London 1915

Sofronitsky and Rachmaninoff

I cannot resist sharing more comments by these wonderful artists about the nature of musical inspiration and soufulness:

First of all, a performance requires a will. A will- meaning to want a lot, to want more than you have now, more than you can give. For me the entire effort is strengthening the will. Here is all: rhythm, sound, emotion. Rhythm should be soulful. The whole piece should live, breathe, move as protoplasm. I play-and one part is alive, full of breath, and another part nearby may be dead because the live rhythmic flow is broken. Rachmaninoff, for instance, could create a rhythmic pulse that was unfailingly alive. He had the enormous artistic will of a genius. He had a greater will than any of the modern pianists. The same with Anton Rubinstein... [who] had an enormous will for hearing, for rhythmic life. And another point, most important: the more emotionally you play, the better, but this emotionality should be hidden, hidden as in a shell. When I come on stage now, I have «seven shells» under my tuxedo, and despite this I feel naked. So, I need fourteen shells. I have to wish to play so well, live so fully, as to die and still feel as if I have not played. I have nothing to do with this.

http://www.sofronitsky.com/publications/publication-03.html

Rachmaninoff said:
"Real inspiration must come from within: nothing from outside can help. The best in poetry, the greatest of painting, the sublimest of nature cannot produce any worthwhile result if the divine spark of creative faculty is lacking within the artist….
[the listener] should] “paint for themselves what the music most suggests"

Myra Hess

Martha Argerich's third husband, Stephen Kovacevich recalls that when he studied with the British pianist Myra Hess, she told him to play melodies 'as if coming from his back'. In this way, the musical phrase or line is longer. Whereas, playing from the hands or fingers, the pianist feels music in 'micro-units', dot by dot, and the long line is interrupted. As Rachmaninoff said: "Big line - big musician. Little line - little musician". (Never a man to waste words!) Schnabel once received a review of a recital which said: "Mr Schnabel plays semi-quavers like a convict counting peas"!
I think we should take Myra Hess's example seriously, and try playing from the back. Also, from an anatomical point of view, this brings strong muscles into play.

To inspire you while you experiment, here are some wonderful performances of Hess' for you to enjoy.

And for anyone wishing to hear a performance of Chopin's Nocturne in C minor op 48, which is sombre and powerful, here's the link

Solomon

On Mondays I often visit the National Sound Archive at the British Library in London. It's a great resource for pianophiles! You can listen to such an array of great performances from the past. Also you can consult books from their archive of literally millions of books. I had a look at Solo, a Biography of Solomon Cutner, perhaps the greatest British pianist of the 20th century. Solomon's first teacher was a pupil of Clara Schumann, and his next teacher a pupil of Leschetizky. Solomon wrote:
In teaching technic, I avoid excessively high finger action. Some teachers make so much of the up-motion: I make more of the down. The first aim is to teach a pure legato. Many think they are playing legato when they are not. And no doubt the effort to lift the fingers high is the cause of much of the strain that prevents a pure legato... (p151, Solo, by Bryan Crimp).
And what a peerless pearly legato his playing has!

Another matchless legato I admired this week is a rare recording from the BBC archive of Dinu Lipatti playing Liszt's La Leggierezza. Wow! It reminds me of Mozart's dictum: 'the notes should flow like oil'...

Play piano in the manner of the Greats, part 1: self-expression

Dear Pianist,

To play in the style of a great pianist, you need to learn to express yourself freely at the piano.
As Nyiregyhazy said: " I'm not trying to impress anyone, I just want to express myself".

On youtube you can hear Albeniz in 1903 improvising at the keyboard, just as Mozart, Chopin, Liszt and others have done before him. Some say the dryness that some find in modern pianism stems from the rupture of this tradition of performer/composer during the 20th century.

Two paths forward:

Path 1. Learn to express yourself more freely when playing compositions by other composers. Here are a few hints.

A) Separate your playing from your practising. Your playing will be freely experimental, with no one to rap you on the knuckles. You can be indulgent and even overindulgent. Whatever you are feeling, express it in the music.

B) Choose expressive miniatures - early Chopin, early Debussy, early Scriabin, early Rachmaninoff...

C) play with flat finger tips, with the expressive pads of the fingers. Cortot would say: draw your arms toward the body, as if you are embracing someone you love.

D) many people find it easiest to play first thing in the morning, or late at night, try it with the lights dimmed, take your glasses off, or keep your eyes half shut... any emotion in your heart wants to travel to the piano strings via your finger tips without any censorship or commentary from the brain.

E) If others can overhear you, you might feel self conscious. To get round this, either play when the building is empty, or buy an electronic keyboard and headphones, so that noone can hear you.

To take things to the next level:

2. Learn to compose and/or improvise. You might consider a few lessons on keyboard harmony/harmony to get you started if you haven't developed this skill until now. As a spin-off, this will make it much easier for you to memorise and penetrate music in general.

You could read the Artist's Way by Julia Cameron for general inspiration on following a creative path.

Good luck and enjoy!